Re: paleonet Mystery fossils

["Mike Everhart" <mike@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ken,
> The pictures are indeed, unfortunately, not 100% clear to me-I wish I
had the specimens in my hand to turn them around so I could view them
from any angle I wanted.

I wish I could somehow convey that sort of visual image, too... because they
do look different under a binocular microscope... a layman's description
might be something like: they are shaped very much like a mushroom, with a
solid, rounded cap that overhangs a hollow underside and a centrally located
stem.

> So what I'm going to suggest now may not be
correct at all, but the specimens remind me of rajiform teeth as
possessed by e.g. dasyatids, pristids and mobulids. If this is true, you
have always considered the specimens upside down.

Should have placed all my orientations in quotes.... I really don't have a
clue at this point which is top and bottom, but the rounded, shiny looks
more like a crown than a root.. I'll take another look and see if I can turn
it upside down in my mind's eye...

> Examples of figures and references of these such rajiform teeth are in
Monsch (1998,
Palaeo-3, 143: 31-50). A standard reference work is still Cappetta's
(1987) 'Chondrichthyes II' in Handbook of Paleoichthyology. But you
probably knew this.

I have Cappetta, bu tno Monsch.. thanks for the tip.. I'll check it out.

Mike